Your post caught my eye,Steve .When I hear people say that they are frightened of thunderstorms I wonder why. The reason I say this is fear often comes from childhood experiences.. I'm at the other end of the spectrum to yourself. I not only love to see them (I've been out earlier this evening as we had storms pass through about 6.00pm heading west) ..but spent 8 yeas going to the US to photograph the . and just the storm cloud structures.Unbelievably, if I mention it to some people they ask if I;m not frightened. What an utterly stupid question. I mean, I wouldn't travel up to 4700 miles (as New Mexico was included sometimes) if I was frightened.
Here's why, I'm sure. As a small kid 4,.5, 6 years old where we lived was a hill (overlooking the river Mersey)..and we lived on a road half-way down it to the one side and it was covered in purple heather. I know that the parents of a couple of friends shut the windows and one drew the curtains... that instills fear in a child. Not so with my parents. They sat me and me younger sister on the front bedroom window sill to watch them and I have clear memories of seeing the lightning and the hillside purple heather light up at night. It was exciting. At 18, as soon as I had a car and I was able to drive towards storm clouds (30-40 miles sometimes) I did but back then no-one,myself included, had heard of storm chasing but that's what I was doing. I still have the B &W (film) photos of towering Cb clouds .It became popular when people saw the US storm chase documentaries on TV, especially the ones involving chase companies.